Within the Flames
by hidden-in-fantasy
Summary: (One Shot) Felicity Smoak is minutes away from death. The Count has vowed to have the last laugh by trapping Felicity in a burning building, with only Oliver's voice to get her out. Can she escape before Felicity Smoak becomes Felicity Smoke? (pun intended) ;) Olicity, takes place somewhere in season two


Felicity POV

I look around, fire enclosing my vision, smoke enveloping my lungs. Tongues of oranges and red licking the walls like a child to their lollipop, furniture crackling with a witch's cackle, mocking me as I scramble.  
>Left.<br>Right.  
>Cough.<br>Left.  
>Alone.<br>It's really hot in here. I can't breathe. Why can't I breathe?  
>My skin bubbles red as my nostrils burn with every inhale. I feel my insides melting like ice in the sun, organs collapsing, lungs screaming...<br>The Count is out there somewhere, carrying the wait of my inevitable death, ready to squash it onto The Hood. Vertigo will make one last sweep through Starling City before crumbling its inhabitants to the ground. He can't let that happen. Oliver will stop it, I know it. But not without another kill.  
>I feel cold. And numb. Which is peculiar because fires are hot and I feel so cold, so lonely. So blind.<br>I would scream but the fire would never let me. I would run but the fire would never let me. I would die but the fire would never let me. What can I do when fire is catching and I'm the spark?  
>They say that lack of oxygen for over five minutes can cause hallucinations, but I know that's a lie because I hear the walkie talkie ring. The mysterious voice sounds like Oliver but I can't tell, there are too many voices in my head.<br>I tell them to shush. He's trying to tell me something. Maybe its important.  
>"Felicity. Felicity can you hear me? Felicity." I grasp the radio and stare at it. I click the button and try to speak, but only inhale more smoke. I yack and cough, holding down the button. I croak, feeling the world around me spin.<br>"Hi."  
>"You're going to make it out if there. If you've never trusted in your entire life, trust me now because you're getting out. Do you hear me?" He rushes. I stumble and hold the button down, struggling for ammunition for words.<br>"I-I can't"  
>"Yes you can. Are there any exits near you?"<br>I look up, my eyes stinging. Each exhale is a month, each inhale a year.  
>"Maybe" I mumble.<br>"Maybe?" He sounds nervous.  
>"Maybe."<br>"Walk towards it. But be careful." He says. I stumble towards an open door, staggering through.  
>"I'm through."<br>"Okay. The floor is going to be unstable. If you feel the floor moving under you, get away as fast as you can, you hear me?"  
>"The floor is moving under me."<br>"Felicity?"  
>"The floor is moving under me. And I can't breathe."<br>I can feel him hold down the button, hear the static, the tension growing.  
>"Hey. I know this is hard. You shouldn't be in there alone. And I would be in there, in minutes, seconds. But the ground is spinning for me too. Let's work together." He whispered. Why is he whispering? The fire isn't listening.<br>He seems to be a nervous wreck. I want to tell him to go. I'm hopeless. But I think its because he loves me. And I love him too, gods I love him so much.  
>I love Oliver because I know he'd take my place in a heartbeat. And he loves me because he knows I'd never let him.<br>"Is there a doorway near you?"  
>"Yes."<br>"Is it open?"  
>"Yes."<br>"Take a look. Yes for a fire, no for no fire."  
>I peer though the doorway. The hallway is a lot longer than it should be.<br>"No fire."  
>"Walk through, but cautiously."<br>I walk slowly down the path. Step. Step. Step. Crash. Am I still pressing the button?  
>"Felicity? Felicity!" He screams.<br>"I'm okay." I look behind me to find a gaping first hole where I had just been standing.  
>"I'm okay."<br>"Tell me when you find another door. Keep on clicking the walkie talkie button."  
>"Why?"<br>"Is there another door yet."  
>"Yes."<br>"Repeat before."  
>"Its closed."<br>I don't need him to reteach me second grade fire safety. I place the back of my hand against the door to feel the skin on my hand almost bubble.  
>"Hot. I can't."<br>"Keep walking."  
>I hear the witch cackle again. Glancing up, I see the slits in the ceiling laughing at me.<br>"Ceiling. Caving."  
>"Keep moving."<br>"Door. Closed."  
>Pause.<br>"Cold."  
>I stagger through to see a set of stairs. Steep, intimidating impossible. The kind of stairs strollers have nightmares about. I stare at them, studying them like a textbook book page hours before the exam.<br>"You ok?" He asks. I almost forgot about the walkie talkie. Almost.  
>"Stairs." I cough. I hear him sigh, a sharp and angry sigh.<br>"You can do this. Take it one step at a time."  
>I scrunch my eyes shut and begin my descent, orange and yellows flashing behind my closed eyelids. Every creak and croak of the steps making me shiver, fear racing through my veins like Vertigo.<br>I can feel a dreadful sense of calm wash over me, like a peaceful wave on the beach, slowing my heart rate, easing my thoughts. Everything is blue and soft, systematic and repetitive. I'm walking on water. Step. Step. I can do this. I have to.

Crash. I'm crashing. The wave is building, transforming into something more than just a figure of salt water rippling the sand on the shore, now it's a tsunami, ravaging at my insides, destroying everything in its path. I'm not serene anymore.  
>I'm falling.<br>Suddenly my cheek is against the floor and my heart's in my hand. Pain is searing through my limbs as it rips my mind in two, I'm not going to make it out alive I'm not going to make it out alive...  
>The world is spinning, the darkness is growing and now my life is flashing so tell why I can still her that goddamn walkie talkie speak.<br>"I'm going in..."  
>"You can't go in. If there's no way in, then there's no way out-" Another voice speaks<br>"WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO?!" Oliver screams. My finger nudges the button, the static plays on.

I am on an island. A deserted island with nobody, no savage killers, no mysterious men, no wise women. No Oliver. It's me, only me and I'm suddenly standing here because it's the only place I can be, stuck on island covered in fire and I'm its only inhabitant.  
>Wait. No. Oliver is here. He is here and he is standing a few feet away, holding out his hand and I'm walking like there is no earth under me. He is there and soon his fingers are grazing my palm and now I'm safe. We're alone on to separate islands together.<p>

I can only endure the strength of his embrace for so long. Now I'm crashing again, but he is here to catch me. The strings holding me up suddenly snap and I'm just another broken rag doll. Figures are blurred, but I can see Diggle scavenging, Oliver's eyebrows furrowed and Roy's warm smile and suddenly.  
>I'm out of the fire.<br>I'm not so cold anymore.

_"I need you to run to me,_  
><em>Run to me,<em>  
><em>Lover.<em>  
><em>Run until you feel your lungs bleeding."<em>

_-Hoizer_


End file.
